McDonald & Collins Named National Players of the Year, ITA All-Star Team Announced, USONP Update, College Tennis Weekly Featuring Harvard, Pro Circuit Update
The ITA announced its 2016 All-Star Team which included the year-end number one in the singles and doubles rankings, the NCAA D1 Singles and Doubles Champions, and the winners from last fall’s National Indoor Intercollegiates. UCLA junior Mackenzie McDonald was named the ITA National Men’s Player of the Year while Virginia’s Danielle Collins was named the ITA National Women’s Player of the Year. I have all the winners listed below and for the full release from the ITA which includes more information about the winners you can click here.
Three more US Open National Playoff Sectionals have wrapped up in the last two days with Cameron Silverman (Elon ’14), Martin Joyce (Ohio State Rising Soph), and Hunter Koontz (Virginia Tech ’15) winning the men’s singles titles in the New England, Midwest, and Mid-Atlantic Sectionals. The women’s singles winners were Margaryta Bilokin (HS Class of ’19), Sara Daavettila (’16 UNC Commit), and Nika Kukharchuk (Ole Miss ’08). For a full list of winners from all the sectionals including the doubles winners check out my google doc. The Hawaii sectional gets started tomorrow with former Kentucky All-American Jesse Witten the No. 1 seed on the men’s side while Eva Raszkiewicz, who played a year at Syracuse, is No. 1 on the women’s side.
The Harvard men’s and women’s teams will be featured on the next segment of College Tennis Weekly hosted by former LSU head coach Tony Minnis. The show will debut tomorrow (Wednesday) at 8:30 p.m. eastern on Fox College Sports Atlantic which is a channel in the sports tier of most cable TV packages. It will be rebroadcast another seven times over the coming weeks so make sure you give it a view. The last CTW feature was on SMU so if you missed that one you can check it on YouTube or down below.
Georgia rising sophomore Emil Reinberg earned his first ATP point today when he defeated former Wake Forest No. 1 David Hopkins 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round of the Winston-Salem USA F18 Futures. Reinberg’s second round opponent will be the winner of the Dennis Nevolo/Thai-Son Kwiatkowski match so picking up another point won’t be easy at all.
Below are all the guys with college ties that came through qualies at Futures/Challengers/ATP events across the globe.
London, England ATP 500 (Grass) – Kevin Anderson (Illinois ’07)
Halle, Germany ATP 500 (Grass) – Benjamin Becker (Baylor ’05)
Perugia, Italy Challenger (Clay) – Nicolas Barrientos (West Florida ’08), Yannick Maden (Clemson ’13)
Blois, France Challenger (Clay) – Jose Hernandez-Fernandez (North Carolina ’12)
Winston-Salem USA F18(Hard) – Reinberg, Austin Smith (Georgia ’16), Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16), Aron Hiltzik (Illinois Rising Jr), Zeke Clark (Illinois Commit), Korey Lovett (Alabama Rising Jr), Rhyne Williams (Tennessee ’11), Daniel Manlow (UAB ’12)
Buffalo USA F19 (Clay) – Myles Schalet (Michigan Rising Soph), Jeremy Langer (Indiana ’12), Evan Zhu (UCLA Commit), Tim Kopinski (Illinois ’15), Justin Roberts (South Florida Rising Jr), Dragos Ignat (Columbia ’16), Andrew Watson (Memphis Rising Jr)
Warsaw, Poland F4 (Clay) – Jan Zielinski (Georgia Rising Soph)
Cartagena, Columbia F1 (Hard) – Boris Arias (LSU ’16), Peter Bertran (South Florida Rising Jr), Samuel Serrano (Utah State Rising Soph)
Arizona State about to hire a coach. think from big school. My sources are telling me